People embrace the Religion of Allâh in Large Crowds

the invasion and the conquest of makkah was — as we have already stated — a decisive battle that destroyed paganism utterly. the arabs as a result of that battle were able to differentiate the truth from the error. delusion no longer existed in their life. so they raced to embrace islam. ‘amr bin salamah said: "we were at a water (spring) where the passage of people was. so when camel riders passed by us we used to ask them: ‘what is the matter with people? what is this man (i.e. the prophet) like?’ they would say, ‘he claims that allâh has revealed so and so.’ i used to memorize those words as if they had been recited within my chest. the arabs used to ascribe their islamization to the conquest. they would say: ‘leave him alone to face his people. if he were a truthful prophet he would overcome them.’ so when the conquest took place, peoples hastened to declare their islam. my father was the quickest of all my people to embrace islam. arriving at his people he said: ‘by allâh i have just verily been to the prophet [pbuh]. and he said: ‘perform so a prayer at such a time, and so and so prayers at such and such time. when the prayer time is due let one of you call for the prayer and appoint the most learned of the qur’ân among you to be an imam (leader) of yours. [sahih al-bukhari 2/615,616]" this prophetic tradition manifests the great effect of the conquest of makkah on the phase of events. it certainly shows the influence of the conquest of makkah upon the consolidation of islam as well as on the arabs’ stand and their surrender to islam. that influence was absolutely confirmed and deeply rooted after the invasion of tabuk. a clear and an obvious evidence of that influence could be deduced from the great number of delegations arriving in madinah successively in the ninth and tenth years of al-hijra. the immense crowds of people who raced to embrace the religion of allâh and the great army which included ten thousand fighters in the invasion of the conquest of makkah had grown big enough to include thirty thousand fighters sharing in tabuk invasion. it was only in less than a year after the conquest of makkah that this growth in islamic army had taken place. a hundred thousand or a hundred and forty four thousand muslim pilgrims shared in hajjatul -wada‘ (i.e. farewell pilgrimage); it was such an enormous number of muslims surging — as an ocean of men — round the messenger of allâh [pbuh], that the horizon echoed their voices and the expanses of land shook whereby while saying labbaik (i.e. lord, here we are worshipping), glorifying and magnifying allâh, and thanking him.